3 September 2011
Sunday, Food Day
Last Sunday may be nearly a week in the past, but it was a
noteworthy day for food and deserves mentioning. Sunday morning I woke up early to into the hospital for
early morning rounds. I had to
settle for a bland latte at Starbucks out of desperation since I’d only gotten
about 5 hours of sleep the night before.
Frankly, I would have preferred a McCafe latte which is cheaper and
better than Starbucks’ version, but unfortunately the McDonalds in St Lukes
hospital was shut down from a grease fire.
By the time I had finished working and biked back and forth
from the medical center, I was ready for a second breakfast. I had read about
Villa Arcos taqueria a
while ago when I was searching for the best breakfast tacos in Houston. Located out in Second Ward, it isn’t
particularly convenient to get to so months had gone and I still had yet to try
it. On that balmy 110F morning, I
decided it was finally time to make the pilgrammage out to eat the “best
breakfast tacos in Houston.”
I have become somewhat familiar with Second Ward from many
visits out to Moontower for beer and dogs. Villa Arcos is just down the street from Moontower, located
in a non-descript some what abandoned looking neighborhood. There are a few other Mexican
restaurants in the immediate area, including the original Ninfas. I found a shaded parking spot right
outside the front door of the cinderblock building with bars over the windows.
It is a small taqueria with about a half dozen tables inside
and a small window where one places one’s order. The menu is listed on a board and is mainly tacos with a few
burritos, enchiladas and platters thrown in for completeness. Some specialties, like chicharron (pork
rind) were only offered on weekends.
The place was dirt cheap, at roughly two dollars and change for a
taco. Coffee cost 75 cents; I
honestly didn’t know anything was sold in this era for under a dollar.
I waited in a short line, got to the window, placed my order
with the friendly senora, reached into my purse to grab my wallet, and realized
that I had left it at home! This
was the second time I had done this in one weekend. I had used my backpack when I biked to work that morning,
and had forgotten to take the wallet out of their when I switched to using my
purse. Damn it! Those tacos looked good.
I left, stomach rumbling, debating as I drove back towards
home if I should actually come back to Villa Arcos or just go somewhere close
to home. It didn’t take me long to
decide that I wanted one of those damn tacos! This was my day, all to myself, so why not!?
It was probably thirty minutes before I actually made it
back there. I told the senora that
I had brought money this time and I replaced my order. I got a chicarron and bean taco and a
taco called Super Bacon. How could
I resist a name like that? My
total was five dollars and change. I read the Houston Press while I waited less
than 10 minutes for my tacos to come out.
It may have been 110F outside, but that didn’t stop me from
sitting on the street side patio to eat my tacos in the “fresh air.” I guess they call the taco Super Bacon
because it is jam packed with thick pieces of crunchy bacon as well as refried
beans and eggs (I opted out of the potatoes). The chicharron was fried so crispy that every piece
literally just exploded with porky goodness in my mouth. I caught up with a co-worker and her
husband who also happened to be there that morning.
The next stop on my food-fest Sunday was
Heights AshburyCafé, another place I’d been meaning to try for ages. It is a colorfully painted little hippie hangout in the
great Houston Heights neighborhood.
I love this little art-deco styled main street with it’s funky shops and
eateries.
The inside of Heights Ashbury café is covered with local
artist’s work. On most weekend
mornings and afternoons, there is some kind of live music. I was sad that I had missed the French
gypsy band that had played throughout the earlier part of the summer. Today there were two young guys and
their acoustic guitars. This café
just oozed calm vibes.
I chatted with the staff at the counter and debated on
whether I should try some of their locally roasted coffee, or a beverage from
the juice bar. A woman named
Deborah Morris basically uses Heights Asbury to sell her freshly juiced drinks;
she calls her company Juicy in the Sky with Vitamins.
Deborah was there that morning and I discussed which kind of
juice I should try. There were
some unique options, some sweet containing just fruits, some vegetable only,
other mixes. There were
ingredients like tumeric on the list.
I was intrigued. I chose a
concoction that contained apples, beets, carrots, lemon juice, spinach, parsely
and garlic. It was called the
Crudbuster and she assured me that it was delicious. She also promised that it would help to detoxify my body and
to rebuild cellular damage. It
sure couldn’t hurt, right?
Deborah, a thin, silver haired, tie-dying wearing woman
sprying hopped around behind the counter, washing and chopping up all the fresh
produce before she threw them in the juicer. She served it to me in a compostable cup; I think I like
this place! I got a punch card
from the cashier. All I had to do
was buy 10 more juice drinks and I’d get the next one free. Deborah and I spoke a little more about
her business. She said she really
saw a need for more health food options in Houston and so she started Juicy in
the Sky. She said business had
been good and she was happy to see that people were paying more attention to
what they ate these days. “If you
are what you eat, wouldn’t you rather be a vegetable than a piece of bacon?”
she rhetorically asked me. I
replied, “Well, I do love a good piece of bacon...”
I sipped my juice while listening to the soothing sounds of
acoustic guitar. I could
practically feel my cells vibrating around happily while they detoxied and
rebuilt themselves. But in all
honesty, I did feel a sense of relaxation throughout my body as I sat
there. It probably had more to do
with the calming reverberations of the acoustic guitars, or maybe it was the
post-chicharron bliss setting in, in any case, I felt good!
For the last few weeks I had been stalking down the
EatsieBoy’s new ice cream truck. It
seemed like every time I tried to find them, there was some sort of obstacle
that prevented it from happening.
I had been hearing a lot of good buzz about their inventive ice creams
and sorbets. The culinary
mastermind behind the Eatsie Boys, besides being a chef, also worked in the
research and development side of the food industry, creating the little bits like
cookie or brownie pieces that are inside of ice creams. The food I’d had from the other Eatsie
Boy’s truck had never disappointed, so I was sure the desserts would be great
too.
The Eatsie Boys were hanging out at Buchanan’s Native Plants
nursery with the Good Dog truck that afternoon. I read over the list of ice cream and sorbet options before
I made my choice. I went for the
Sweet Corn Shazaam and the Brass Monkey Carmelized Banana flavors. Two big scoops in a cup cost me just
$4. The sweet corn ice cream was
subtle but delicious, with little pieces of corn inside. The carmelized banana was full of
flavor, and not some artificial banana flavor, but a really nice natural ripe
banana taste.
I took a brief intermission from eating by doing a one hour
yoga class. Hopefully I further
repaired some cells and flushed out some of the beer toxins from the
weekend. I was home from the day’s
outings just long enough to shower and change before Eric and Angira and their
9 month old baby, Ryan, came to pick me up.
Eric loves food as much as I do and had been telling me
about this authentic little Thai place in the Heights that I would love. That Friday at
Moontower, high on the
hot dogs, we made plans to go out for Thai food on Sunday night.
Asia Market is a small strip of a building that one would
easily pass by without noticing.
Most of the place is literally an Asian (but Thai dominated) market,
selling all kinds of interesting things from cuttlefish to aloe drinks and even
insects at times. One little
portion of the market is a restaurant.
I let Eric do most of the ordering since he’d been there many times in
the past. While we waited for our
food, Eric and I perused through the aisles. He got some toasted coconut juice for him and Angira to drink. I chose a chrysanthemum tea for
myself. We snacked on shrimp chips
and I grabbed some sticky coconut rice for dessert.
The food came out quickly and there was more than we really
needed. First came a rice dish
with strong flavors of kefir lime, cilantro, and peanuts. Besides the amazing flavor, I also
loved the chunks of crispy rice that were found throughout the dish. Next was a noodle dish made with the wide
rice noodles as well as a mix of seafood and other flavors I can’t even
identify. It had that awesome
smoky wok flavor that I haven’t often been lucky enough to taste outside of
Asia. Next was a green papaya
salad, that was a bit on the bland side.
Eric said it was usually better.
It was still a nice contrast to the strongly flavored spicy dishes we
had. Last but not least was the
green curry with chicken and Thai eggplants. I ate to the point of near sickness but still vowed to the
woman at the counter that I would be back soon with friends.
I wanted to slip into food coma after the massive about of
Thai food, but Jason was on his way to pick me up to go for a beer at
CedarCreek bar in the Heights. We were
supposed to be meeting up with a group of people who were celebrating a
birthday. By the time we trekked
up there, we found out that the party had already ended. Guess it wasn’t much of a party
considering it was only about 7pm.
Jason was hungry so we stayed for him to eat and me to drink. I tried a Moose Drool beer. It was a brown ale made my a brewery in
Montana called
Big Sky Brewing Company and it quickly became one of my favorite
beers. It very much reminded me of
the nutty caramel flavor of
Buried Hatchet Stout. By the time I finished that, I was truly ready to fall
asleep and so I did just that, feeling very fulfilled about my food-filled
Sunday.
